Our Mission for Serving Jesus by Serving Others

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Update

Hey everyone! I promise that the new series will start soon. Summer is winding down, and both of us are getting ready for school to start next week. Lauren isn't feeling well at the moment (so if you think about it, say a little prayer that she'll get better), and I've been trying to get a few last hours in at my summer job. I believe that the start date for the new series will be Monday, August 4th. That'll give us time to get everything together for school AND for the site. After school starts, we'll try to get a post up every two or three days. It kind of depends on our work loads. Thanks for understanding! Have a great week. :)

In Service to the King,
Sarah

Thursday, July 24, 2008

New Series

Hey there! School is starting in less than two weeks now, so we thought we'd start a new series of blogs about teens or young people from the Bible who faced tough situations. We decided on this because when you go back to school, you will probably face some peer pressure or some hard decision. We know we will! Our first post will be about David stepping up and challenging Goliath. Keep checking up with us.

Thanks guys,
Lauren & Sarah

Monday, July 21, 2008

Theme Verse

If you haven't noticed by now, in our sub-heading we have the reference to a Bible verse. This is our theme verse. I thought I'd share with you why we chose it. Mark 10:45 says, " For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Now, we can't very well give our lives as a ransom for many because we are not Jesus Christ, the perfect sinless sacrifice. But we can decide to serve and not to be served. If you have the choice this week between doing something for someone else and having someone else do something for you, choose to serve the other person. Jesus showed this attitude of servanthood by washing his disciples' feet and in many other ways. We don't have to go around washing our best friends' feet, but we can serve others to make their lives a little easier. So just take the time to step up and do something nice to help another person this week.

In Service to the King,
Sarah

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Sand Story

Hey, just a quick note from the two of us. You guys might want to go to either YouTube and type in Sand Story and click on the one from JoeCastillo or go to sandstory.com. What he does is really cool. He recreates stories just by drawing pictures with sand. We know it doesn't sound exciting, but trust us, it's worth it!

Hope you guys like it,
Sarah & Lauren

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Stepping Up to the Heights

Hi! This has been the catchphrase around our youth group for the past few days, and I thought it would be really awesome for our blog. "Praying for deer feet." Now, some of you are probably going... "why would you pray for deer feet? that's weird." But let me tell you.

Last week, our youth group went to a camp where Louie Giglio was the speaker. For those of you who don't know who that is, go to YouTube and look him up because he's awesome. One night, he was teaching us about being totally for Jesus. And he told us to pray for deer feet. All 6,500 people in that room were totally silent and just stared at him. Then he pointed us to Habakkuk 3:19. It says "The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights." - NIV.

Do you see what this is saying to us? We must pray to God to give us deer feet. Now for those of you who are hoping to wake up tomorrow morning and find your feet have been turned into hooves, I don't think that's gonna happen. But praying for deer feet means praying that God will give us the strength, endurance, courage, and ability to reach the heights. When we do reach the heights, we can make His name famous throughout the world. But remember, reaching the heights won't be just simply "okay I'm ready to be at the top of the mountain now." It'll take some work, and it won't always be easy. Also, we don't have to wait till we're at the very top to start spreading His good news. Tell everyone on your way!

So, next time you say your prayers, simply pray for deer feet. Pray for deer feet, and step up.

In Service to the King,
Sarah

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Love Letters

Alrighty, I'm pretty sure this will be the last post for the day. Bare with us as we get into a good rhythm for posting.

Anyway, I just thought this was a pretty cool way to think about reading the Bible. My grandparents came over this evening and were just talking with my family. My grandfather told us about how he had been reading some love letters that my grandmother had written to him when they were engaged. He said it was nice to be able to go back and read all the sweet and loving things she had written. He also said that it was a good reminder of how much they really do love each other. Is this not exactly what the Bible is to us from God? Basically, it is a big book of love letters from God to His children reminding us each and every day how much He loves us. But, we have to take the initiative to go back and read it, or else we don't always remember all the sweet and loving things He's written to us.

So my challenge to you is to go back and read your love letter from God. Make it into a habit so you never forget how much He loves you. I have to work on this myself.

In Service to the King,
Sarah

What is Life

Hey everyone it's Lauren! I wanted to share something with you that I have found to be really interesting! For the past few days I have really been thinking about the question, what is life? So I began wondering what do other people think life is? I began to ask this question to many people. About half of them said Life is fulfilling God's plan for you, some said life is what can breathe, and others told me that life for them right now was unfair. I really began to dig deep into what life really is ,and to me this is what i found. Life is what is true. What is true is Jesus. No one can give a definition of what life really is without leading back to WHO Jesus is. Jesus Christ was, is, and will always be life. What each person said was so true. You may be wondering how God is life for someone who thinks life is unfair,well sometimes God allows us to go through pain to bring us closer to him, or it allows his fame to shine through all the earth. To get my point across Jesus is life. I think we can do so much to show the world who he is!

God bless,

Lauren




First Post & Welcome

Hey guys! Welcome to Step Up. Lauren and I are really excited about this blog, and we hope you will be, too. So, what's gonna happen is, we'll post stuff about what's going on with any ministries we might be doing or programs we get involved in. If we find out about something REALLY cool, we'll write it here and let y'all know about it. We'll also write commentaries about any Scripture passages we read so it'll kind of be like a Bible study, too. If you guys have any ideas for our blog or any certain passages you'd like us to read and then write about, we'd be happy to hear them. Just remember, this blog is going to be Christ-centered so try and help us keep it that way. Thanks bunches!

In service to the King,
Sarah :)